Trade/camp notes

The WHL has a press release out in which they trumpet that 111 WHLers are headed to NHL camps this year. Which is fine, but looking at the list, there's some problems with that number. For starters, they list several players who have less chance of playing in the WHL this year than I do. McArdle, Franson, Russell, etc. Which would be fine, but they're not consistent in that method of listing players. Where is Carey Price? Where is Devin Setoguchi? Where is Vladimir Mihalik? Tyler Plante? Dustin Kohn? These are all 06-07 WHLers who at least in theory could be back in the WHL again this year as overagers. Either count all these signed '87 players or count none of them.

Next, Prince George has traded overage defenceman Curtis Patterson to Saskatoon for a conditional 2009 7th round pick. If you ask me, a "conditional 2009 7th round pick" is about one step above "box of used practice pucks". The way this usually works is the Cougars get the pick if Patterson is still on the Blades roster past a certain date, probably the October 11 overage deadline. The move solidifies Real Cyr, Kalvin Sagert, and Greg Gardner as the Cougars' three overagers. Not that there was ever much doubt of that even without the trade.

And thirdly, the Cougars have released a veteran. These two moves get the Cougars down to 24 players, which means they are pretty much at their regular season roster. At most there might be one more cut since most teams use 23 or 24 player rosters during the season.

Getting in on the act, Spokane released a goaltender today, getting them down to three goalies.

Remember the article titled "Living The Dream" a week back about the Ams two new imports? Well, for Josef Tichy (the 6'6" defenceman who abhored fighting in hockey), the WHL dream ended before it even began. Gregg Drinnan reports that the Ams have released him. Gregg also reports that the Ams have picked up recently-cut defencemen Paul Levarsky (Everett) and Brayden Nargang (Edmonton). Things must be pretty grim on the Americans blueline when they're picking up guys who have been cut twice before by different teams. (Levarsky by Red Deer & Everett, Nargang by Portland and now expansion Edmonton).